Call Center Authentication

I called dozens of contact centers to learn about how companies attempt to identify and authenticate the end user. This talk will share best practices you can use to secure your own call centers.

You've built login for your application—maybe you even have 2FA—but what happens when a customer calls the support number listed on your website or product?

Security teams and app developers have thought a lot about online authentication, but we haven't applied the same rigor to designing systems for authenticating over the phone. At Twilio, product and engineering teams have spent the last year thinking about this problem and how to make the experience better for both the customer and the call center agent. In that time, I've called dozens of contact centers to learn about how everyone from startups to Fortune 50 companies attempt to identify and authenticate the end user. This talk will take a look at that research and outline best practices you can use in your own call centers. You'll leave the session understanding what information should be made available to the agent and what kind of product features you can build into your web or mobile application that can facilitate phone authentication.

Kelley Robinson
,

Kelley works on the Account Security team at Twilio, helping developers manage and secure customer identity in their software applications. Previously she worked in a variety of API platform and data engineering roles at startups in San Francisco. She believes in making technical concepts, especially security, accessible and approachable for new audiences. In her spare time, Kelley is an avid home cook and greatly enjoys reorganizing her tiny kitchen to accommodate completely necessary small appliance purchases.